Clerical abuse, intimidation, murder
July 17, 2002
International News Analysis Today Report
By Toby Westerman
© 2002 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
As America stands alert to the terrorist threat from abroad, many American
children remain open to attack from some of their own trusted religious leaders,
while exposure of these predators may well result in threats, intimidation,
and even murder.
According to long-time observers of the American Catholic Church, June's conference of bishops arrived at no real solution to the decades-long problem of clerical abuse, providing only vague reassurances and a "Charter" on abuse to a thoroughly disgusted nation.
The "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" promises in its preamble that "We reach out to those who suffer. We apologize to them and offer our help for the future." The body of the Charter guarantees that child abuse will be reported, and the faithful supported in their grief.
"If they [the bishops] think they've solved the underlying problem, they're deluding nobody but themselves," declared Fr. Charles Fiore, a veteran of the struggle to expel abusers from the Catholic priesthood.
The Rev. Charles Fiore, a Catholic priest for 42 years, has fought the homosexual influence in the clergy almost from the date of his ordination. With degrees in philosophy and theology, as well as clinical training at Menninger's and the State Hospital in Topeka, Kan., Fiore has both condemned the actions of homosexual priests and counseled the victims of their abuse.
The solutions offered by the bishops were nothing but a "band aid applied to the real problem of the pandemic corruption of the Church in the United States," Fiore declared, adding that the bishops gave no evidence of "an intention of addressing the skeletons in their own episcopal closets."
The Charter itself remains voluntary until the Vatican gives its approval, and may, in fact, never have the force of law. Negotiations over the Charter may take years, and the American bishops have for decades ignored Vatican directives they found to be objectionable.
While allowing some priests to go behind bars, American Catholic bishops have a firm track record of protecting their brother bishops, even under the most adverse circumstances.
The Catholic reform group Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) closely follows the continuing careers of disgraced bishops, and, among many similar instances, has noted the following:
Bishop Keith J. Symons resigned from his diocese of Palm Beach Florida,
in 1998 after he admitted abusing five boys, and since then has led at least
one retreat, entitled "A Marian Day of Prayer." After Roman Catholic Faithful
made Symons' abuse record public, Bishop Kenneth J. Povish, the retired bishop
of the Lansing Diocese, condemned RCF and referred to Symons as a "wounded
healer."
Bishop Patrick Ziemann resigned his post in the Santa Rosa, California Diocese
in 1999, after admitting to a two-year affair with one of his clergy. The
priest who was involved in the affair claimed Ziemann had forced the relationship
by threatening to bring allegations of theft of church funds if the priest
did not cooperate. Ziemann is still active giving retreats in Arizona, according
to RCF.
Bishop Daniel Ryan, disgraced former leader of the Springfield, Illinois
Diocese, resigned one week prior to the filing of a lawsuit naming him as
one of its defendants. The lawsuit charges Ryan with misconduct with priests
and male prostitutes, and creating "an atmosphere of tolerance to the sexual
abuse of minors…" in his diocese. Ryan, however, remains active in both the
Springfield and Joliet dioceses, offering Mass, giving retreats, and participating
in confirmations.
By mid-year 2002, four Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Rembert Weakland,
had resigned after admitting their sexual activities.
Currently Bernard Cardinal Law, Roger Cardinal Mahony, and Edward Cardinal
Egan are among the top Church officials under legal and media scrutiny for
their handling - or mishandling - of child abuse cases in their jurisdictions.
Roman Catholic Faithful, founded in 1996 by Stephen Brady and located in
Petersburg, Illinois, [www.rcf.org] has devoted itself to bringing to account
priests and bishops for their moral outrages and criminal activity. By 1999,
Ryan resigned under pressure initiated by RCF, while not admitting any guilt.
Brady's group has also brought to the public's attention a priest-oriented
international homosexual Internet site called St. Sebastian's Angels, which
continues to operate at various web locations.
Brady's activities have earned him the enmity of the homosexual community.
One individual with ties to the Catholic homosexual group Dignity, as well
as St. Sebastian's Angels, published Brady's private home address and phone
number on the Internet, referred to RCF as a "hate group," described Brady
as motivated by "evil purposes," and labeled him as a "perpetrator."
In another incident, which was reported to the FBI, Brady learned from a
second- hand source that an email message was circulating on the Internet
stating that someone has placed a "contract" out for Brady's assassination.
While the threats against Brady are unsettling, there are indications that
those who delve too deeply into the connection between clerical homosexuality
and child abuse - finding perversion slipping into an abyss of Satanic ritual
-- may pay for their curiosity with their lives.
In the late 1980s, two young Chicago private investigators, Bill Callaghan
and Hank Adema, agreed to assist a "friend of a friend," whose child had been
molested by a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese.
The parents of the abused child sought help after the Archdiocese under Joseph
Cardinal Bernardin threatened to counter-sue following their original allegations.
Before the scandal of clerical child abuse came to the public's attention
through the efforts of the mass media, it was common practice for a diocese
to file a libel suit against parents who charged diocesan clergy with abusive
behavior.
As their investigation into the background of the abusive priest proceeded,
Callaghan and Adema discovered the existence of a homoerotic group, made up
mostly of priests, and calling itself The Boys Club.
During their inquiry into the membership and activities of The Boys Club,
a woman identifying herself as the girl friend of a murdered church organist
contacted the investigators, and stated that she had information which would
be useful to them.
The woman's friend was one Frank Pellegrini, once the organist and choir
director at All Saints-St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Chicago's South
Side. Pellegrini had also served as chair of the sociology department of Loyola
University of Chicago.
According to the information obtained from the girlfriend, Pellegrini had
a homosexual relationship with one of the priests involved in The Boys' Club,
but was in the process of leaving the priest-lover and marrying her.
Before completely severing ties with the priest, however, Pellegrini discovered
that The Boys' Club was involved with far more than homosexual relations.
Tied closely with their sexual exploits was ritualistic satanic worship and
the regular abuse of young children from low income, ethnic families.
Pellegrini informed the Chicago Archdiocesan Chancery, and scheduled a meeting
with one of the Archdiocese's top officials.
The day before the meeting, Pellegrini was brutally murdered in his home,
which showed no signs of forced entry.
Callaghan, who spoke with police personnel originally working on the case,
stated that Pellegrini was found with his hands tied with barbed wire, and
had been repeatedly stabbed.
Even Pellegrini's dog was slashed, leaving it seriously wounded but alive.
In the opinion of police detective/profilers working on the case, the brutality
and manner of the killing indicated that it was carried out either by a woman
or a homosexual, Callaghan stated.
Perllegrini was stabbed 47 times - the same number of years that he had lived.
Just after Pellegrini's body was discovered, and while police were still
on the scene of the murder, police observed two unusual incidents, Callaghan
reported.
The first involved the arrival of then Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago - and
one of the most powerful men in the American Catholic Church - Joseph Bernardin.
Although there was never an indication that Bernardin met Pellegrini, he arrived
at the murder scene, and quizzed police personnel on the progress of the investigation.
Left unanswered was how Bernardin learned of the killing, and why he should
personally visit the scene of a relatively unimportant individual whom he
had no reason to know.
The second incident involved Pellegrini's dog. As the police conducted their
investigation at the scene, the dog remained quiet, still suffering from its
wounds. When the dog saw priests come into the apartment, the dog suddenly
became aggressive and barked wildly.
The Pellegrini murder occurred in 1984, and was "reopened" with federal funds
in the early 1990's, but many of the investigation's informal police notes
have been "lost," and important leads in the case have never been fully followed
up, according to Callaghan. The Pellegrini case, at present, remains one of
the many hundreds of unsolved Chicago murders.
Although Callaghan never met Pellegrini, nor participated in the original
investigation, he and Adema found that whatever secrets the case entailed
posed a direct threat to their own lives. As Callaghan and Adema pressed on
with their investigation on behalf of their client, they learned of a warning,
which came through contacts in the Chicago police department.
Callaghan learned that mob informants had stated that a contract had been
offered on his life, and on that of Adema, by an individual closely tied to
the Pellegrini case.
Although no one in the local underworld was interested, there did exist the
real possibility that the contract could be accepted by "a black or biker
gang," Callaghan revealed.
The full extent of The Boys' Club influence in Chicago - and beyond - still
remains unclear, as does the extent of ritual abuse associated with clerical
assaults on children.
There is however, ample evidence that ritual abuse does occur, and is most
obvious in the case of "Agnes."
In the opening pages of his best-selling book, Windswept House (Doubleday),
Fr. Malachi Martin describes a satanic ritual carried out on a young girl.
Although Martin used a degree of literary license in the description of the
event, there is a real individual behind the story, and an actual instance
of satanic abuse.
"Agnes," a pseudonym for her actual name, met Fr. Charles Fiore some years
ago, for assistance with spiritual guidance and counseling for the long term
effects of cult abuse she suffered at age eleven.
"Agnes" has consented to and passed several polygraph (lie detector) examinations,
and is now married with a family in a southern city. "Agnes" has made her
accusations in sworn affidavits, written statements to Vatican officials,
and has directly confronted those whom she has accused.
Among those "Agnes" has implicated in the attack upon her was a young, rapidly
advancing priest named Joseph Bernardin.
"Agnes" states that in the fall of 1957, in Greenville South Carolina, with
her father present, Bishop John Russell of the Charleston Archdiocese and
his chancellor, Bernardin, raped her as part of a Satanic ritual, which included,
as a RCF report stated, "a perverted, sacrilegious use of a [consecrated]
host."
According to Catholic teaching, a consecrated host is the true and total
body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity.
"Agnes" also became acquainted with Steven Cook, another individual who accused
Bernardin of abuse. Cook accused Bernardin of coercing him into homosexual
acts while he was a seminarian and Bernardin was archbishop in Cincinnati,
Ohio.
While the media have consistently reported that Cook "recanted" his accusation
against Bernardin, Cook, who was dying of AIDS, simply stated that he could
"no longer trust his memory."
Callaghan interviewed Cook as part of his own investigation, and verified
that Cook did not "recant," and he learned that the dying homosexual, formerly
of very modest means, suddenly had developed considerable financial resources.
Estimates of the value of the newly established estate range from $250,000
to several millions. After Cook's death, the money was divided between his
mother, his sister, and his male lover.
Bernardin, who said he had never met Cook, also left the dying man a costly
chalice, which Bernardin had used to offer Mass in Cook's Philadelphia apartment.
In addition to Cook and Bernardin, Cook's homosexual lover was also in attendance
at the Mass. Cook made no secret of his homosexuality, and there is no indication
that Cook would have hidden the identity of his male lover.
Giving Holy Communion under such circumstances, according to traditional
Catholic teaching, constitutes sacrilege.
Bernardin was also implicated in an alleged incident of abuse perpetrated
against seminarians attending the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona,
Minnesota in the 1980s.
According to a Boston Globe report, Bernardin, along with several "top prelates,"
were accused of "coercing seminarians at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary…into
having sex."
The rector of the seminary, Fr. Robert H. Brom, was also implicated in the
sex abuse charges. At the time the seminarian made his allegations, Brom served
as Bishop of Duluth, Minnesota. Brom now is Bishop of San Diego, California.
The Winona seminarian later retracted his charges, but he received a settlement
payment of "less than $100,000," according to the Globe report, which quoted
Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, of Anchorage, successor to Brom as Bishop of
Duluth.
The circumstances of the seminarian's retraction, however, have recently
come into question.
In a sworn affidavit, Mark Brooks, a friend of the seminarian who received
the settlement payment, claims that the retraction of the charges against
the bishops are false, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The retraction was issued, according to Brooks, because the seminarian "needed
the money."
Brooks' affidavit was filed in San Diego Superior Court in connection with
a press investigation of abuse allegations against Brom.
In the mid-1980s, the Diocese of San Diego settled a lawsuit initiated by
Brooks claiming abuse. The Diocese settled for an undisclosed sum.
Confronted with constant scandal, and a sometimes callous, hostile clergy,
many Catholics have lost their faith and left the Church.
Other Catholics, however, have banded together and are seeking to support
the faithful clergy, while denying money to those elements that appear bent
upon the destruction of the Catholic Church.
Michael J. Tario, who works closely with Wall Street traders, is leading
a group called the Ad Hoc Committee for the Prevention of Clergy Sex Abuse
(312-542-8005).
Tario is suggesting that Catholics redirect - not boycott - contributions
to the Church.
"Good Stewardship," said Tario, "is not just sending money to the Chancery
for a cover-up." Tario is urging Catholics to contribute only to Church organizations
that use their funds for charitable purposes, rather than legal expenses and
costly settlements.
Tario lives in the Chicago Archdiocese, and personally knows parents whose
children have been abused by archdiocesan clergy. Their callous treatment
at the hands of the Archdiocese, and a growing awareness of the extent of
clerical abuse in the Chicago area and around the United States, has compelled
Tario to take action. Tario's group works closely with other organizations
having similar goals across the nation.
Tario's group is demanding that the Chicago Archdiocese implement four basic
reforms:
1. The Chancery open all its files regarding abuse, including those considered
most secret.
2. All "gag" orders be lifted. No individual should fear a Church libel suit
if he or she speaks of their experience with clerical abuse.
3. A "Blue Ribbon Committee," independent of the Archdiocese, be put in place
to examine archdiocesan financial records, as well as all abuse files.
4. All Archdiocesan financial reports be independently audited to insure
transparent financial operations.
Tario periodically cites a statement of Bishop William B. Friend of the Diocese
of Shreveport, La, on the right of the laity to know where how the money they
contribute is spent. "The Church consists of the people, so the people ought
to know what is going on," declared Friend, who was a banker before becoming
a priest.
Chicago Archdiocesan financial director, Tom Brennan, claims, however, that
Tario's group is having little impact. Brennan expressed his confidence that
archdiocesan revenues would continue to flow, stating that "We're expecting
growing revenues," according to a report from the Rome-based Zenit news agency.
Quizzically, Brennan also stated in the same report that "he has not yet
seen hard numbers from the past six months."
Others dispute Brennan's claim of financial tranquility.
Tario cites reports from several of the wealthiest parishes in the Archdiocese
where contributions have significantly fallen, with some estimates noting
a drop by as much as 25 percent. Tario's information confirms an earlier Business
Week article, documenting a steep decline in donations, as well as an increased
need for funds from a top-heavy, lay bureaucracy.
As Tario's campaign of redirected giving gains momentum, another ominous
threat to the American Catholic Church's money supply is appearing on the
horizon.
What one attorney terms the
"unholy trinity of litigation"- liability, damages, and "deep pockets" - may prove to be the most potent stimulus for reform, and relief to a hard pressed laity, since Church structures would no longer be able to support the abusers within its ranks.
The possibility of a poorer but more faithful Church does not appeal to all.
When Tario proposed a program of redirected giving to Francis Cardinal George
of Chicago, the Cardinal Archbishop asked, in response, if Tario wanted the
Archdiocese to go back to an "immigrant Church," poor and struggling.
Many observers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, are pressed to respond that
- if necessary and to gain a more faithful Church - the answer would be, "Amen."
Copyright 2002
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